


On Different Ships

by PatterCake



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Angst, Cannibalism, Gen, One Shot, cw abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:07:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26130892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatterCake/pseuds/PatterCake
Summary: Lemongrab 2 talks to the lemon person his twin consumed for trying to escape. After all, they may have come on different ships but they're in the same boat now.(Set in-between Lemonhope part 1 and Lemonhope part 2)
Relationships: Earl of Lemongrab & Earl of Lemongrab, Earl of lemongrab & lemon people, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	On Different Ships

**Author's Note:**

> Please do not read this if you ship the Lemongrabs. They are brothers and frankly it makes me uncomfortable.

The lemon bird's claws dug into the skin of his back as it carried him away from freedom and back into the earldom. But Headlemon couldn't even feel the pain, only fear. Fear of what was going to happen to him. 

Fear of the lemon growing bigger and bigger as they drew closer till Headlemon could see the crazed look in his eyes. And see every glistening fang as he opened his jaws to bellow;

"I'm going to eaat yoouuu!" 

The lemon bird dropped Headlemon so he fell directly into his mouth with a thump. His trembling body touched the wet tongue of his creator and he screamed. The second he felt the tips of his teeth the terror that had gripped him was replaced with panic. 

"No!" He begged, but the huge hands clamping him down and forcing him into the hungry mouth were too strong, "No! No!" 

He vanished deeper and deeper into Lemongrab's maw until the horrifying sounds of being devoured muffled his piercing screams. Still pleading for mercy, he slid down his throat as lemongrab swallowed with difficulty. There was a moment of terrible silence as Headlemon sat in his father's stomach. Unable to process what had happened to him. 

"I DID IIIIIIT!" came the Earl's triumphant shriek, though it was slightly muffled by the stomach walls. 

Headlemon was jostled around- thwacking painfully into weeks old cake and other food that had already began to rot as Lemongrab walked to the castle. 

_"This cannot be happening,"_ he thought deliriously, _"it isn't real! I am having an unacceptable dream. I am going to wake up soon. Everything will be acceptable soon-"_ but the overwhelming stench of the stomach, the pain in every inch of his body and the terrible fear he felt were far too real to be a dream.

Headlemon had never cried before. First there hadn't been anything to cry about, his creators took care of him and they were all happy together. Then he'd always been able to be a good Lemon. He'd been so good that he got to keep his name while Lemonhope and other lemons became Badlemons and Nohopes. Even the electric shocks hadn't hurt him that much. And the starvation had been painful but not so painful it made him cry. 

But now tears dripped from his tiny eyes as he finally acknowledged what had happened to him. He was as good as locked in a dungeon. Worse then locked in a dungeon. And he was to be trapped in this awful place forever and ever. He curled up into a ball and sobbed helplessly. 

Then something warm touched his face, feeling for his eyes. And soft hands wiped his tears away. 

Headlemon reached with shaking hands into the darkness, searching for who was comforting him. His tiny hand felt along the jagged line of a bite mark and he recognised his other creator. 

"Shh…" Lemongrab murmured to his subject. "quiet now… if brother hears he-" 

Lemongrab cautiously pressed an ear to the stomach walls and relaxed when he heard his twin breathe deeply. He was asleep. 

He turned back to Headlemon. 

"It is alright. He iiis… sleeping like a babyyyy… mmmm…" 

Headlemon crawled through the filth towards him and clung onto him. Lemongrab stiffened- a lemon gave by taking, cared by yelling, and hugged by hitting. That was what his twin had drilled into him. Any time he asked for affection beyond the occasional forehead nuzzle he was yelled at, which is to say, he was cared for. It just never felt like it. 

But that was the code good lemons followed. Good lemons followed orders, did only acceptable things and always listened to their big brother even if it hurt them. Good lemons didn't try to play how they wanted to. But good lemons didn't need to be punished. Good lemons got to keep their eyes. They got to keep their legs. They didn't get eaten. 

He was just a bad lemon now. A sour failure, a disappointment. And since he was already bad, what more could he lose by doing another bad thing? 

Lemongrab wrapped his arms around the child and hugged him tightly. He stroked Headlemon's shivering back with a gentle hand and let him cry into his chest. 

For a while they sat in silence, clinging to each other. 

"I am happy tooo see you, little seed baby." Lemongrab broke the silence eventually. 

"I am happy too." Headlemon sniffled and snuggled tighter into his arms. He'd forgotten how warm and gentle his father was, he'd been gone so long.

Lemongrab smiled down at him sadly as he whispered "But I am sorryyy toooo..."

"Mmm why are yoouu sorry?" Headlemon asked innocently.

"Because… because it is all myyy fault!" Lemongrab let go of Headlemon and put what remained of his head in his hands as the memories and guilt came flooding back. "If I had not broken our doll, if I had just done what I was told… if I had just been a good boy… none of this would have happened. You would be safe. I am so sorry… I am so very sorry…"

A single tear dripped down his long nose and fell onto the child's face. "So please forgive me…" he choked, "forgive me foor not being able too protect yoouu…" 

Headlemon had never seen an earl cry before. Especially not the younger earl. Even when his brother called him names and beat him he had a smile for Headlemon and his children. When another tear fell he couldn't take it anymore. 

"It is not your fault! How dare you!" Headlemon insisted while tugging on his soiled shirt, "How dare you say that… it is all his fault. He is a bad lemon." He spat. 

"Do not say that! It's his lemon ways… he cannot help the way he is." Lemongrab repeated what he'd been telling himself for years and years after each insult and blow his brother gave him. That was right. His brother had lemon ways, that was all. He was created to help him deal with his loneliness and anger. If his brother lashed out like this that simply meant he wasn't fulfilling his purpose and it was him, not his brother, who was to blame. 

"But I have lemon ways-" Headlemon said in confusion. 

"Then it is his lemongrab ways." The older lemon explained. 

"But…" Headlemon said, "you are also lemongrab and you would never hurt me."

"I… maybe you are right." Lemomgrab tried to imagine what he would do if his brother broke his doll, or freed his prisoners. Headlemon was right. He would never hurt the lemon people. He would never hurt his brother. "Maybe he is a bad lemon." He admitted, "But knowing that onlyyyy now doesn't make me feel any better…" 

They sat in the disgusting darkness. Headlemon gradually calmed down and eventually he tugged on Lemongrab's sleeve and asked;

"This may be an unacceptable question but... is there anything to do? Anything at all?" Lemongrab smiled at the innocence of his question. 

"No it is not unacceptable at all... the truth is... it is incredibly boring sitting in here." Lemongrab admitted, "He sleeps most of the time and none of the children try to talk too meee through his stomach now…" 

There had been a time where when lemongrab plugged his ears and sank into a deep sleep the lemon people would tip toe into his room and try to whisper to the second earl through the walls of his stomach. 

Headlemon remembered that, the adrenaline, the fear... slowly getting closer and closer to the bed and the wonderful relief when he replied to their tappings and whispered back to them. That he was still alive and one day, he might come back to them. 

Lemongrab might cough him up, he would say sorry, he would take off all their collars and they would burn them. He would fix the breaking walls and leaky roof, the castle would be the way it used to be, everything would be the way it used to be. 

Sometimes they would even slowly prise his jaw open to slip food and water down to him. Just a handful of lemonjons, and then they would leave in case he woke up. 

Never could he have imagined that one day he'd be sitting here too…

"Oh…" Headlemon said sadly. 

"No no do not be sad!" Lemongrab hadn't had a playmate or a child to look after in months. He racked the remainder of his brain for something to do, "would you like to play a game, my sweeeetheat?" 

"No…" 

"Would you like me to… tell you aaaa storyyy? About a brave little lemon called Headlemon who-" 

"No!" That had been what Headlemon thought of himself when he climbed down the rope. Brave Headlemon going to the candy kingdom to help Lemonhope save his people. He knew how that story ended. 

"Shh! Not so loud…" Lemongrab hushed him and thought of something else, "would you like me to sing you a song?" 

"But music is not allowed…" 

"What more can my brother do to us?" Lemongrab said wryly, "Eat us a second time?" 

Headlemon smiled. "I suppose…" 

Lemongrab pulled him close and rocked the two of them back and forth while he sang Lemonhope's song to them. He tried to sing it all the way through but on the line _"a place where friends give me hugs_ " he suddenly remembered everything he had lost and everything he would never have. His throat started to hurt and his vision blurred. He couldn't sing anymore. 

"That was acceptable." Headlemon told him. He smiled. "What do we do now?" The child asked. 

"The only thing we can do now is sit and wait for Lemonhope." Lemongrab told him. 

Headlemon remembered thinking he'd seen Lemonhope at the edge of the kingdom before he tried to escape, with the princess next to him. "What about the princess?"

"The princess...well…" Lemongrab glanced up at his brother's heart. They could see it's faint outline through the stomach lining, suspended above them by a web of bood vessels and ateries, hanging from strings of pulsing flesh. It was beating slowly and calmly, and the lungs hanging behind it were expanding and shrinking with a steady rythm. He was still fast asleep and couldn't hear them, but even so lg2 whispered very quietly. If their brother heard them say this, he would execute them for sure. 

"I do not think mother... likes us very much..." He whispered.

Headlemon was confused. "But you are her creation? Like I am to you. If you are her seed baby won't she come and help you- if I was in trouble you'd come and help me." 

Lemongrab sighed. "She does not think of me and brother as her babies. She does not think of us at all. She saw my brother hit me and she did nothing. I have been waiting for weeks now… each day that she doesn't come I hope less and less." Headlemon sniffled again and Lemongrab forced himself to smile at him. 

"Do not worry child. Lemonhope will come and liberate us. I am sure of it." Headlemon stopped crying and nodded. 

"What are we going to do now?" He asked. 

Lemongrab stared into the darkness with an empty expression. "Wait."

"Wait for what?"

Lemongrab said in a weary, tired voice; "For it to be over." 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Today, the 27th of August, is lg2's birthday as that's when you made me aired! While this isn't exactly happy... I had this Lg2 centric oneshot laying around and decided to finish it.


End file.
